"Children's trusts will require strong governance, in particular a powerful integrated governing board or structure through which senior representatives of all key partner organisations can give strategic leadership and direction and drive through change."

Statutory Guidance on Inter-agency Co-operation

Children and young people will be happy and safe and have the opportunities to reach their goals as responsible members of their community. We will make Dorset a better place for all children and young people.

The board will:

• Provide, strategy, direction and leadership

• Determine strategic priorities

• Be involved early in plans for major changes

• Be an honest broker - ensuring equity, fairness and a level playing field between different sectors

• Hold partners to account for achieving the five Every Child Matters outcomes

Vision for children and young people in Dorset

Improve the lives of all children and young people and narrow the gap so that the experience of the majority is the experience of all.  Children and young people will be happy and safe and have the opportunities to reach their goals as responsible members of their community. We will make Dorset a better place for all children and young people.

We will ensure that children and young people are at the heart of all we do.

To achieve our vision we will prioritise the following:

• Safeguarding
  To constantly work with individuals or organisations working with children on a paid or voluntary basis to ensure that there are robust measures in place to keep children safe and to respond to any concerns or allegations that are raised

• Commissioning
  To ensure we have a cost effective commissioning process based on evidence and the identified needs of children, young people and families

• Early intervention
  To enable people to work together more closely on a locality basis in responding to the needs of children and young people at an earlier stage, by sharing information and using the Common Assessment Framework, and working really effectively with parents

• Inclusion
  To raise levels of achievement and attainment through work with local schools and communities ensuring that all children and young people can achieve excellent outcomes

• Participation
  To improve our co-ordination of what children, young people and parents are telling us so that we can show how we respond to their views and ideas

• Performance management
  To ensure that we have a strong and embedded performance management framework so that we know where there are areas of concern about performance and strive to 'reach the top 25%'

• Terms of reference

  Terms of reference of the Children's Trust Board

• Sub groups

  Sub groups of the Children and Young People's Partnership board

• Family Information Strategy

• Dorset Parenting Support Strategy

  Nothing contributes more to a child's wellbeing than the parenting they receive. Parenting can be a complex task, and in modern society there are many models of parenting.

• Think family in Dorset

  The 'think family' agenda links up the provision of helping services in social care, heath, and community support into an approach that can meet the needs of all family members. By integrating or aligning the shape of services in Dorset, issues which cut across provision for children, young people, parents and carers such as mental health, crime and disorder, domestic violence and family support can be more efficient and be experienced by service users in a more 'joined up' way.